THE HIGH CALLING OF ENOCH
By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God.
Hebrews 11:5
Despite very little was known about this saint living among millions of people before the flood, he had a very unique and special calling. There were only a few verses in the Holy Bible that mentioned of him. Of course, there was another man by the same name Enoch who was a son of Cain, the murderer from the beginning, who built a city and named it after his son Enoch. This Enoch, the son of Cain, was never mentioned again in the Bible after he made a cursory appearance in Genesis 4:17&18. Perusing the Holy Bible from cover to cover, one will not find any other person by this name Enoch other than this two persons recorded in the Bible.
In contrast, this Enoch, a descendant of Seth, though having his name mentioned only six times in Genesis 5, his name was mentioned again by two different writers in the New Testament to shed a little bit more light on the life of this saint. During those days where men could quite easily live more than nine hundreds years of age and while the tree of life was still in the Garden of Eden guarded by Cherubims to keep sinners away from obtaining eternal life, Enoch did not live up to a ripe old age like his predecessors.
Though before the flood where idolatry was not mentioned to have been practiced by the inhabitants on earth, fallen men did wax worse and worse culminating in the total destruction of those sinners except for the household of Noah. The description of the evil works of those sinners witnessed by the Lord God was recorded in Genesis 6:5: And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. Fallen men had become utterly corrupt and incorrigible. It was a continual practice of evil, a natural development of the fallen state of men that resulted in the destruction of men by the great flood. However, Enoch did not live to see the final rebellion of wicked men that ushered in their doom by this great flood where men had never before experienced a shower of rain from a mild storm.
Undoubtedly, Enoch was also living in appalling times. It was indeed perilous times and any godly man would seek to be delivered from that untoward generation. That past evil world before the flood was full of wickedness and filled with violence. Corruption was their mainstay and truth had fallen unto the ground. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound even before the Seed of the woman was brought forth into the world for the redemption of fallen and helpless sinful men. So Enoch was providentially protected and preserved as a testimony of God’s amazing and all-sufficient grace.
Through this man Enoch was born a man Methuselah who turned out to be the man who lived the longest in the recorded history of the Holy Bible. For his son Methuselah lived nine hundred and sixty-nine years before he left the scene of that world before the flood. Such was God’s goodness towards the object of His affection and His bountiful care.
Enoch was only sixty-five years old when Methuselah was born. Yet in another three hundred years time, Methuselah would be left without his earthly father leaving him to live the remaining six hundred and sixty-nine years wondering about his father’s “high” calling. What had been told about Enoch was that Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him (Genesis 5:24). It was a simple and yet powerful approbation for a man listed among the generations of Adam in Genesis 5 where everyone eventually died.
Before Adam fell, it was a common day-to-day affair where the presence of the Lord was literally real in that the Lord God did walk in the cool of the garden to fellowship with men. What perfect fellowship, wonderful privilege and infinite joy to meet the Maker of the universe and speak with Him face to face! But alas, sin entered into the world and this divine setup of men fellowshipping with the Lord God in an intimate way was no longer possible. Fallen men no longer could walk with God having rebelled against Almighty God and bearing the guilt of failing to keep God’s only commandment to abstain from the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
But it was recorded that Enoch walked with God! What comfort to learn of such a possibility where the Divine met with the fallen! What grace and what mercy the Lord God accorded to Adam’s helpless race! Did Enoch enjoy the same fellowship Adam once had before he fell? Was Enoch accorded the same privileges of that close, real and warm divine presence of the Lord God Adam had before the fall? What statement of a man written in simplicity that albeit in a fallen state, Enoch walked with God! Was it really possible? But inspiration of the Scriptures cannot be denied. For Enoch did walk with God and it was only one among the multitudes of Adam’s fallen and helpless race that Enoch had this desire to walk with God.
When men could live for over nine hundred years, dependence on God’s protection and provision could easily have been taken for granted. However, Enoch had chosen the good part to have a closer walk with the Lord God. What love divine and all loves excelling, joy of heaven and earth unite in a world cursed and destined to be destroyed because of the sins of men! While not much was known about the antediluvian world, this much is known of Enoch’s continuous and inseparable fellowship with the Lord. For Enoch indeed had this testimony that he pleased the Lord God.
Imagine a man like any other man living day to day doing his own things, building cities, married and given in marriage, eating and drinking, making lives more bearable and comfortable because of the curse that was pronounced on the earth, this man Enoch was oblivious to all his earthly cares. For he sought after the true source of life and sustenance and he walked with God. He had found the pearl of great price for which he willingly gave up his all and all in his earthly estate esteeming what riches the Lord God could provide than to work out his own salvation from the curse placed upon fallen men. For he could have known that it was appointed unto men once to die and after this the judgment before this great truth was penned some thousand years later by another saint raised up to be a chosen vessel to bear the Lord’s name before kings and many peoples and to suffer for Christ’s name sake.
Enoch had certainly found the fountain of youth and never to go back again to broken cisterns that could never satisfy notwithstanding the fact that the general life span of men then was well over nine hundred years. This was indeed a man after God’s own heart that succeeded in attending unto the Lord God without distraction. No other men during that time had this testimony that fallen men still desired to walk with God. Sins did separate men from God. It was not God who did not want to be close to His creatures but sins made it difficult if not almost impossible for fallen men to enjoy God’s presence like it once did by the first Adam. Fallen men as a whole could no longer bear to walk with God because there was this remembrance of sins notwithstanding the sacrifice by the shedding of the blood of the innocent for the guilty was already initiated after Adam’s transgression in the Garden.
Nevertheless, Enoch was an exception who had this testimony and was a recipient of God’s high calling to manifest His mercy and grace upon Adam’s fallen race. He was one in many millions who conquered the impossible by the grace and with the help of the God of the impossible. It was amazing grace to see God willing and able to allow a sinner to walk with Him. What accommodating grace from the Lord God! It was miraculous providence that Enoch was enabled to continue this walk of the narrow way despising the shame and ridicule of the world at large to cling unto the Maker of the universe and Author of eternal life.
Not only did Enoch walk with God, God Himself played an active role in this walk by taking him away. It was not mentioned how it was accomplished in the taking away of a man tainted by sins that run deep in the veins of the soul of this fallen creature. It must have been a long walk but a walk that could not be reckoned with earthly time that bound the creatures to planet Earth. It was a walk as far as earthly time could measure up to three hundred and sixty five years at most. It was a walk where time was no more in the presence of the Divine Being! Time had given way to eternity in such a walk. One would wonder what kind of conversation Enoch had with the Lord God. As far as the earthly walk was concerned, what had Enoch asked and done during his walk with God that pleased God, one would also wonder! Could the feat of Enoch be repeated? What impact it had on the family of Enoch concerning his testimony of doing those things that were pleasing in the sight of God, one could only speculate.
Indeed the call of Enoch was special and unheard of in the antediluvian world. The author of Hebrews revealed that Enoch was a man of faith! By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God. (Hebrews 11:5) Not only did Enoch walk into timelessness, he had also passed on from death destined for fallen men into eternal life before the shedding of the blood of God on the Cross of Calvary. It was beyond human comprehension and incited angelic amazement that perfect holiness was truly satisfied in this translation of a sinner into the divine presence of the celestial land promised only for the redeemed of the Lord and the usual abode of His heavenly host of spirit beings.
Enoch did see death of his fellow men. Enoch knew what death was like but what he knew not was waiver of the death sentence pronounced on sinful men. So Enoch cleaved to the Holy One who pronounced the death sentence on men and had faith that only through the Lord God was there hope of ever escaping death. Though his walk with the Lord may not be motivated purely for the purpose of escaping this bondage of death, Enoch did receive a promise that he would not see death. This indeed was what really set him apart from the rest of Adam’s hopeless race where death was a present reality while execution was a final destiny waiting to happen in a moment’s notice. Enoch was truly blessed with a heavenly calling where death was not part of his estate, albeit in his fallen state born of Adam listed to be seventh according to the genealogy of Adam.
Besides being called to partake of God’s divine nature having escaped the pains of death, Enoch had the calling of a prophet. For it was recorded by Jude that Enoch did prophesy in Jude 1:14: And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints. So Enoch did receive revelations directly from the Lord during his earthly walk with God. His walk with God was not a closely guarded secret and he was not a secret believer of the Lord. His prophecies clearly demonstrated his faith in the Lord God and he was sticking out his neck to testify of God’s truth and His great displeasure over the wickedness of the inhabitants of the earth. Only a man of faith in God would dare to prophesy for God to his fellow men.
Was Enoch well received by his contemporaries? Was his message highly esteemed by sinful men? Biblical revelation proved otherwise for sinners were rapidly hastening to their doom even when God in His mercy did send more prophets to testify for Him in hope that men would repent. What was remarkable was that Enoch did prophesy of the last days of the coming again of the Lord with His saints. This message showed how far sinners had departed from the Lord God even during that time requiring the Lord God to intervene and to come again to visit His creatures in order to bring in everlasting righteousness on earth. It was several thousand years now since Enoch prophesied of the coming of the Lord and the whole creation continue to groan and travail in pain for this momentous event to become a reality.
One could only ponder how much revelations this saints received from the Lord during his earthly walk with the Lord and his work of faith that pleased the Lord. So as far as Biblical records indicate, Enoch was the first prophet that God had called to testify to the inhabitants of the earth before the flood. What honour for a man despite the infirmities of a man born of Adam’s fallen race was given this call to be the first prophet for the Lord God! What crowning glory was it for a man to be a worthy recipient of such an high, holy and heavenly calling whose calling was so high that he was eventually called out of sight beyond the visual range of the eyes of flesh of sinful men that the glory of God may never hope to see! It was a call concerning a walk with God from earthly time to eternal immortality dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man has seen, nor can see apart from the salvation offered freely to whosoever will come to the Lord on His terms.
This article is taken from a chapter in the book “The High Calling of God” which may be downloaded via: